This is a morality tale. It’s also about the character of Democrats and the weakness most politicians on the Left show in the face of a fight. It’s something you never see from Republicans, even when they’re wrong, caught lying, or found to have done something illegal, even criminal.
Eliot Spitzer goes after Wall Street, then when he’s targeted by a political hit, helped on by the Right’s machine, whether it be Fox or Murdoch’s rags, he’s relegated to the dustbin of political could-have-beens.
The annoyance I’m experiencing seeing Mr. Spitzer relegated to talking head fate on CNN sitting next to Kathleen Parker coincides with the general disgust I’m feeling towards the punditocracy revealing their inner Republicanism. As to CNN, it’s not like Spitzer could go to Fox. He couldn’t even go to MSNBC, because of making an enemy of the CNBC crowd, minus Dylan Ratigan, with Spitzer going after Jack Welsh’s good Wall Street friend. Corporations, after all, must always rally ’round one of their own.
It’s also morally criminal who gets ostracized and made to pay in this country. Martha Stewart did time, but Maurice Raymond “Hank” Greenberg, the man who ran AIG walks away claiming he did nothing wrong, though a New York judge said otherwise, skips. No one will ever explain this injustice to me sufficiently.
At a time when Democrats need financial sheriffs, because Pres. Obama and the Democratic elites aren’t up to it, it’s infuriating Mr. Spitzer’s still benched.
Doesn’t anyone understand or remember this man saw the financial crisis coming, as well as the fundamental reasons it was about to occur, before anyone else? Not only that, but he was actually doing something about it before it hit.
In France he’d be made a hero, with his sexual proclivities ignored, his fighting instinct to go after Republican Fat Cats hailed.
In America, the disgraced “sheriff of Wall Street,” at a time when we could use someone with balls, is relegated to the punditocracy.
If he was a Republican he would have not only stayed in office, but the legislators would have supported him. Instead, because of his bull in a brothel styling, his colleagues in New York bailed on him.
Republicans never make their own pay for their insatiable libidos or reprehensible behavior. Newt Gingrich asked his wife for a divorce in the hospital as she recuperated from cancer, yet he has his eyes on running for president in 2012. Fox exalts him, with Sean Hannity sucking up to him at every appearance. David “diapers” Vitter was humiliated yet he remains a senator. Rudy disgraced his wife by announcing he wanted a divorce publicly before he’d told her, but that was after he’d had a failed marriage to his cousin, yet Chris Matthews and his ilk never castigated him like they did Clinton. John Ensign is still a senator today even after his moral and suspicious shenanigans out of Sin City.
The other interesting thing about the hit put on Eliot Spitzer, because make no mistake about it that’s what it was, is that customers of escorts or prostitutes are never, okay very, very, very rarely made a target. I know this because I spent years inside the sex trade, talked to the Louisiana madam that Aschroft sent the FBI after while jihadists were planning 9/11 inside our country, so know something about what secret sex is all about. Never mind that it’s not rocket science.
When Roger Stone is found in the middle of a Democratic hit, that is after the U.S. Attorney sends a letter to Eliot to beg off an investigation, then that same Republican targets you, well, if it smells like dirty tricks that’s because it is. Stone reportedly has a tattoo of Richard Nixon between his shoulder blades, which speaks volumes.
Eliot Spitzer made enemies of the most powerful men running the U.S. money system. He was also effective in proving his case. Yes, he was a prick while he did it, making no friends.
Now, I’m not going to go into the whole sorry soap opera, but there’s a reason Spitzer’s downfall came to a head after he zeroed in on Dick Grasso, which brought Ken Langone into the mix. See, Spitzer believed it was Langone who helped Grasso get his big payoff, which Spitzer deemed exorbitant. Ken Langone then became bent on revenge. The story goes on and on and so does the moral of it.
Republicans won and continue to win, because Eliot Spitzer, who people like me saw as presidential material (called the first potential Jewish president), is seen not fit for public office.
Compared to whom, David Vitter, Newt Gingrich, Rudy, John Ensign?
The “downfall” of Eliot Spitzer was his own fault.
The problem with Democrats is that they are consumed by political self-loathing. When one of their own is caught with his pants down their self-righteous gene kicks in. Judgment and Oh The Horror cries rise, the offending person meant to walk the media plank or worse. When they refuse, as in the case of William Jefferson Clinton, the last national Democrat in office that knew how to wage a war against his adversaries on the Right, people like Joe Lieberman or Claire McCaskill parade themselves out as moral mouthpieces and scolds, their self-righteousness a political bullet that the Right applauds on impact.
Republicans are consumed by self-righteousness and when one of their own is caught they may let him twist in the wind, but their self-loathing is reserved for gays. There is really no crime bad enough to cause a Republican to turn self-righteous against their own. That is unless he or she thinks raising taxes to pay for our debt is a good idea, or if going after the criminals of Wall Street is suggested. It’s simply not done and if you’re on the Right and suggest it… well, they don’t, so that’s a moot point.
Silda Wall Spitzer reportedly told her husband not to resign, which is recounted in “Client 9: The Rise and Fall of Eliot Spitzer,” a terrific documentary now available. But his personal relationships in New York politics weren’t strong enough. It took Hillary Rodham Clinton to save her philandering husband, and no one comes close to the power she wields, so the Spitzers were at the mercy of Eliot’s thin relationships.
So, today when I turn on CNN to see Spitzer as a pundit, then look around at today’s crop of gutless wonders currently leading the Democratic Party, the only people I see winning from keeping Eliot Spitzer out of public office is Republicans. They knew how dangerous he was to them politically, so when he handed them a chance they took him down. That’s why it’s very likely Republicans on Wall Street and their friends on the Right in the U.S. Attorney’s office took him out.
Eliot Spitzer isn’t around to watch them anymore. …and look what’s happened since.
This is a terrific post. Taylor, you are right about Republicans and Democrats. I have always believed Eliot Spitzer was taken down for the reasons you mention. In addition, it wasn’t long after he wrote this article in the Washington Post criticizing the Bush administration that his secrets became public.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/13/AR2008021302783.html
Thanks lynnette. The loss of Spitzer was serious and it was also orchestrated. I thought this before “Client #9: The Rise & Fall of Eliot Spitzer.” The only people who benefit is the Right.
Thanks for posting that link, too.
Hope everyone sees the documentary.
Great post.
Great movie too. Saw it twice.
Yeah, I did, too.
Taylor-great post.
I didn’t see the movie, but I know who the culprits were who did’nt come to Spitzers aid. The most prominent being Chuck Schumer-The biggest phony liberal, largest corporate Democrat in the Senate.
As a NYC resident, and having worked on wall street many years ago you can smell the corporate corruption on Schumer. He is the largest corporate w#$%e in the Senate, especially when it concerns wall street. Recall that he voted to repeal Glass Steagal, and raked in tons of cash for himself and the Democrats. If Schumer had made a play to save Spitzer he might have survived, But Schumer was/is to beholden to wall
street to the detriment of the working class guy. Also witness his vote against the Dorgan Amendmendment which would have allowed drug re-imporation from Canada and drastically reduce the costs to seniors and the public as a whole.When he was part of the committe tahwas to broker a deal on healthcare and he cam out and said he was fighting for the public option -I then knew the public option was dead in the water.
Witness the aftermath- despite the financial meltdown-Schumer does not advocate breaking up the largest banks,and if he does make mewling sounds that he favors breaking up the largest banks it is because it has no chance in hell of passing-phony cover.
Andrew Cuomo as AG of NYS did some pretty good things specifically in student loans but was not nearly as agressive as Spitzer, and now as Governor he is going out of his way to say he is not beholden to the Unions.
The cesspool of NYC and NYS politics is beyond redemption and all of it is centered in NYC.
progressive house dem- obama set on cutting ss and medicare recs. and much more?!
http://downwithtyranny.blogspot.com/2010/11/will-foolish-and-unattainable-quest-for.html
I always thought that Spitzer should have brazened his way through it. I believe he could become viable politically again, but as a populist candidate, not a Dem or Rep.
It reminds me of something that happened during the first Clinton candidacy…when there was no clear favorite for President. NPR ran a story about Richard Nixon thinking of running for President, and they gave rationale about how he still had some “eligibility” left. I listened and thought to myself…you know, I am not for anything he is for, but I just might vote for a person who would be a strong President. Someone who knows how to govern.
Embarassingly, it was April Fools Day, and it was all a joke, but there’s something about someone like Spitzer, warts and all, that is very appealing in this time of government ineffectiveness and corruption.
Good point, JB.
The only reason he didn’t brazen it out is that he’d made too many enemies & no one in the state legislature would support him.
Unfotunately, his wife didn’t have the weight of Hillary Rodham Clinton, who saved WJC’s presidential bacon.
“The problem with Democrats is that they are consumed by political self-loathing. When one of their own is caught with his pants down their self-righteous gene kicks in.” – TM
The Dems, even before the rightward movement was obvious, allowed the Reps to do all the defining and norming and game ruling. I think their fear of the “religious right,” as it was called not that many years ago, has as much to do with the rise of the Reps and conservatism as anything else.
Joyce Arnold~They just lay down and never try to counter the language,how stupid are they? How lacking in true convictions? I think they have completely forgotten the reasons for a Democratic Party and have no clue how to use power.
Hey LL. I have a feeling we’re going to continue learning about “how stupid are they.”
This is the party that turned its back on ACORN, when they did nothing wrong and were a help to Democrats in quite a few races. It’s the party that was willing to fire Shirley Sherrod, rather than find out if there was anything to the allegations made against her by a known liar.
If you want a synonym for “pathetic”, then “DC Democrats” might be a good choice.
agreed~
Yep.
I agree with Joe Beets, Spitzer would have to rise as a populist answer to the Dems.
As I said last night I think this is a fabulous post. I have the same thoughts when I watch Parker/Spitzer. He is as smartas the masters of the universe and cannot be taken in by rethug economic hocus pokus. This country needs him bad.
I don’t give a flying fig about his sex life and at the risk of sounding odd I think going to hookers has more integrity than having messy affairs in which familes are broken up and lies are told. I’m sure his wife has other opinions on that as is her right. She saw enough good in him to stay with him,that is all I need to know about it.
I have said it before, this country needs to grow up about sex and get over it and Taylor is so right that the Dems are so wussy about it,while the Rethugs just brazen it out.
Does the Dem elite have ANY convictions?
This is a good post. The loss of Eliot Spitzer is huge, but I don’t think it’s just about the Dems being so feeble and wimpy. As Taylor says, it’s the powerful enemies he made on Wall Street. The Dems appear so weak because they want to be friends with those powerful enemies on Wall Street. I’ve always felt that third parties were a waste of time because our system is so rigged for the two, but I’ve started to think that a third party for the people is becoming really necessary. The Dems are totally abandoning that role. When this administration began, they had the opportunity to do a new New Deal and win the public for another generation, but they preferred to stay buddies with Wall Street and big corporations so they skimped on the stimulus and jobs efforts, they threw over the public option for the insurance industry and Big Pharma. I’ve finally begun to accept that we the people can no longer depend on them. Maybe Eliot would be willing to front a new party? I’d be delighted to dedicate my impending retirement to working for such a party.
The economic justice party.
I like it. The Economic Justice Party.
The Democrat party has fallen a long, long way when you hold up a POS like Elliot Spitzer as a hero.
As his wife if she agrees with your assessment.
Never said he was a hero. Just that he would be someone I might vote for to lead us out of this mess. I don’t give a rat’s ass about his sex life. That IS for his wife to worry about, but not me.
It is so nice to see Eliot Spitzer speak with strength and a mind. Democrats did nothing, absolutely NOTHING but roll over for George W. Bush and his team of two-faced, mean idiots and they are still doing that, following this Casper Milquetoast poor excuse for a leader!!! Then Eliot Sptizer screws around and THAT’S a big deal. This so-called “wholesome” bunch of wimps has sold us out and will spend the next two years rolling over for Repubs. Why even run a Democratic candidate, even when the Democrats had it all these past two years all they wanted was bipartianship and kiss the butts of the Repubs. Just hand it all over to them now, they own it all. Then keep putting down Eliot Spitzer…..Dems cannot stand someone who speaks up and is not kissing a Repub ASS!
I voted for Casper Milquetoast and it is embarrassing!
Well said, karmax.
Outstanding comment. I feel exactly the same way. In fact, he often contributes greatly to the conversations on his show. (His co-host is a complete dud.) But of course, many want him to fail at that too.